@techreport{R-94-44,
PSURL = {/publications/cgi-bin/tr-fetch.pl?r-94-44+ps},
ABSTRACTURL = {/publications/cgi-bin/tr-fetch.pl?r-94-44+abstr},
ABSTRACT = {For the last 20 years, the human-computer interaction research community has
provided a multitude of methods and techniques intended to support the
development of usable systems, but the impact on industrial software
development has been limited. One of the reasons for this limited success is
argued to be the gap between traditional academic theory generation and
industrial practice.
Furthermore, technical communicators (TCs) have until recently played a
subordinate role in software design, even in usability-oriented
methods. Considering their close relation to the users of the developed
systems, and to the usability issue itself, they con- stitute a hidden
resource, which potentially would contribute to the benefit of more usa- ble
systems.
We formed the Delta project as a joint effort between industry and
academia. The objec- tives of the project were to jointly develop
usability-oriented method extensions, adapted for a particular industrial
setting, and to account for the specialist competence of the TCs in the
software development process. This report is a qualitative study of the
development, introduction and evaluation of the Delta method extension. The
analysis provides evidence in favor of a closer collaboration between system
developers (SDs) and TCs. An additional outcome of the in-depth study is a
proposed redefinition of the extended interface concept, taking into account
the inseparability of user documenta- tion and user interface, while
providing a natural common ground for a closer collabo- ration between SDs
and TCs.
},
YEAR = {1994},
NUMBER = {R-94-44},
INSTITUTION = ida,
ADDRESS = idaaddr,
IDANR = {LiTH-IDA-R-94-44},
AUTHOR = {Pär Carlshamre},
EMAIL = {parca@ida.liu.se},
TITLE = {A Field Study in
Usability Engineering: Bringing in the Technical
Communicators.}